Azlo

by Maia Starr

  The dragon steadied me with his grip and extended his wings to block the strong breeze from hitting me.

  “That’s very polite,” I relented lowly and gave him a nod of approval.

  “Ariella, stop,” Meg pleaded. “This isn’t funny. Just go with him.”

  Great. Not only had I been chosen, I’d embarrassed my sister in the process.

  I set my jaw and looked back at the dragon before me. I couldn’t believe how wrong everything was. I let out an uneasy breath and tried to convince myself he’d made a mistake, and soon Zaphira would be back to correct this royal screw up. But it didn’t happen.

  He simply pulled me back to the lineup of Weredragons and before I could even exhale, all of the women had been chosen. What we were left looking at was a group of 18 hopeful, professional, respected women who had been rejected by a different species.

  I had never imagined I would be on this side of things and couldn’t imagine what life on the ship would be like as we flew back to Udora. Would the women hate me? Would the friendships I’d made be reduced to jealous stares? How would Meghan feel?

  I stared back at the women, in shock, my toes tingling from the sudden yet catastrophic change my life was about to take. My mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening, especially as I looked forward at the women on the other side and realized my sister had not been chosen.

  Looking at her resigned expression made me feel angry. I wanted to turn back to my match and scold him for his ridiculous pick, but as I looked up to regard him from my 5’4 stature, I suddenly felt intimidated.

  And I wasn’t intimidated by anybody.

  Chapter Four

  Caridan

  Ikar stared at me with an intense gaze as we boarded our shuttle back to Udora. He hadn’t stopped staring since I’d mistakenly chosen a human mate without getting on my knees and begging him for the privilege.

  I was forbidden from participating in a choosing, and going against Koth orders isn't something that goes unpunished.

  That meant not only had I put my own life in danger; I'd also thrown Ikar's leadership into question with the Koth. I'd kept waiting for him to come up and reprimand me, but all he did was instruct me not to mate with Ariella. So long as I obeyed, he wouldn’t bring the choosing to the council’s attention.

  Ikar and I weren't close. Bad history between us led to a growing dispute, but he liked to pretend as though he were above it.

  While Zephira had encouraged me to participate in the choosing, in truth the whole thing started out as something of a joke. I’d watched the girl blather on and on during the choosing with no respect for us and no respect for the time and energy that had gone into making the event happen.

  Yet, she didn’t even want to be chosen? Months of training for this ceremony all so she could come back to study us? That thought didn’t sit well with me. In fact, I found her wildly disrespectful… and so I chose her.

  I’d only done it to scare the girl. To annoy her as much as she was annoying me. I kept waiting for Ikar to tell me I was banished from choosing by our council; that I was out of line and would be punished. I kept waiting for something to happen, but the farther we went along with the choosing ceremony, the more I realized nobody was stopping me. Before I knew it, the human and I were signing papers and being put into intake.

  We sat in the shuttle and braced for takeoff to leave Earth. Just as quickly as we’d come to this blue planet, we would be on our way back home. That was fine by me. I was used to the effect high speeds had on my body from my own personal form of transportation, but I could tell some of the humans were still unaccustomed to it. Some of the women excused themselves soon after takeoff to be sick. Others casually unbuckled their seatbelts and began to walk around the ship like it was a vacation to be enjoyed.

  My choice and I sat across from one another on parallel walls, facing one another awkwardly. Weredragons were confident by nature. I’d never seen one unsure of how to handle a human companion. In fact, most I’d known were already off trying to mate by now. I was not one to let a women stare me down, nor to ignore her, but I was so confused at the lack of repercussions I wasn’t sure what I should be doing.

  Ariella wasn’t the most beautiful human I’d ever seen, but I did find myself staring at the blonde curls that fell down the sides of her face. I became fascinated by the way she used the strands as a shield against me. She’d gone back and forth between looking annoyed and looking afraid. I wanted to laugh, but said nothing.

  She sighed finally as she loudly unbuckled her seatbelt. We hadn’t even exchanged names. I’d only known hers from Zaphira telling me about her and watching her sign our intake forms.

  The woman had slight curves, which wasn’t something I was used to. When Weredragon’s pick a mate we tend toward exaggeration. Hips and curves and beautiful bumps to hold onto. Her hips were adequate, but she was bottom heavy and had small breasts from what I could gather.

  I set my jaw as my eyes traced her form and I frowned inwardly, wondering if I should have bothered giving her a second look.

  “Friends of yours?” she said sharply, finally catching my gaze. I followed her eyes to Ikar and Brenem, who were both cross-armed and staring my way.

  “Not exactly,” I said quietly and met their glares.

  Ariella widened her eyes and looked out the window beside her, turning her body half way before turning back to me with exasperation. “I don’t like them staring,” she said exasperatedly, though under her breath. “It makes me feel like I should be hiking up my skirt and putting on a show or something.”

  I raised my brows with a beguiled curiosity and said, “You need to hike up your skirt for that?”

  “Well, the show’s not that interesting,” she smirked. “Have to give the boys something to look forward to.”

  “I suggest working on your routine then.”

  She shrugged and suddenly seemed bored with me, sighing and turning back to the window.

  “That’s it, then?”

  She didn’t turn back to me. “Am I supposed to be thanking you, or something?” Her tone was in a whisper, at least. She knew better than to insult a Weredragon in front of his pack. “I told you I didn’t want to be chosen.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have signed up,” I enunciated.

  “Are we seriously fighting right now? Why don’t you go play with your friends? Wag your tails together and steal women, or whatever it is that you do.”

  I could feel the fire burning down my throat as I swallowed hard against her comment. I exhaled audibly, and she heard my annoyance as I breathed again to try and calm myself.

  “You’d do well to watch your tone,” I snapped quietly. “You forget yourself. I suspect you’ll learn to keep that in check quite quickly.”

  Her blonde curls bounced in a hurry as she whipped back around to face me, a deep frown burying itself between her eyebrows. “You know there’s a non-violence clause in our contract, right?”

  Ariella’s tone was sarcastic and strong, but my expression remained the same as I said, “You’d be surprised how little that matters.”

  She looked at me with darkness in her eyes and set her jaw. “Your friends are still staring,” she snarled.

  I looked over at my brethren next to me and raised by brows to them. “Problem?” I asked loudly.

  The shuttle was quiet, with only the memory of my shout lingering in the crevices. Ikar looked calmly in my direction, but his hound Brenem was absolutely enraged. He approached me, with Ikar following slowly behind.

  “That’s a nice little girl you’ve got there, Caridan,” Brenem said, crossing his arms in the hostile way I’d grown accustomed to. “Funny thing, that.”

  “And yours as well,” I said.

  My words were sarcastic, but in truth, he’d chosen beautifully. His mate was a woman named Harper. She had long brown hair and large, almond-shaped brown eyes that seemed to stare with an innocent intensity. She had a small waist and beautiful curves that
made me want to grab her right then and there, but she was Brenem's. She sat in a flight row not far from Brenem. She peeked her head down the small shuttle hallway with heightened curiosity as the altercation began.

  “She’s perfect,” he spat back. “And legal.”

  “Funny, I don’t hear our Koth saying anything about it.”

  He leaned against the wall and raised a brow, condescension dripping from every tone and every tap of his finger. “I think he’s still trying to decide what to do with you,” Brenem sneered, his scales now glowing with anger.

  “Well!” came the jovial tone of Targeg as he approached us. He slapped Brenem hard on the back and gave a large grin as he said, “When our Koth finally decides, I bet we know who will be at his side, cheering on the penalty.”

  “Back off, Targeg,” Brenem said, now bristling with energy as he hoisted himself away from the wall, approaching my friend with his wings furled back. He turned his attention back to me and raised a brow as he said, “What if somebody wanted her?”

  “There were plenty of women,” I argued. “More than enough, in fact.”

  “Well, I wanted that one,” he lied.

  I remained still; looking over to Ikar for some kind of direction. He opened his mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it, biting his lip instead and waiting for his friend to carry out rough justice.

  I stood from my seat, my wings spreading ever so slightly the closer Brenem got to me. “Then I guess you can’t have her,” I said defiantly.

  “Or what?” he shoved against me, causing the shuttle to rock ever so slightly.

  “Alright, you bottom feeder. I don’t know how the hell you expected this to play out, and I don’t really care. I am the last ‘Were you want to threaten.”

  “Relax,” Targeg said; his tone uneasy.

  “Hey, what’s the deal?” Ariella said, now standing beside me. Her blue eyes beamed at me with what seemed like annoyance. She then looked to Brenem with the same fire I thought she had reserved for talking with me. “Can you back off? I just got here. Can you give me at least five minutes to talk to my mate?”

  It was as if her voice had triggered something in Brenem. The human in him was gone. Everyone could see. His eyes had glazed over with rage, and there was something instinctively animalistic about him then. He lunged toward me as a taunt. I wasn't scared of him on a normal day. Annoyed, yes. But never afraid. I didn't doubt I could fight him, but something about the look in his eye made me flinch back.

  I instantly wish I hadn't done it as a large smile crept across his mouth. I thought he would come at me, but he quickly focused his attention to Ariella.

  Brenem grabbed Ariella by the neck and held her up against the wall, smashing her back against the window over and over again as she shrieked against his grasp.

  “Don’t touch her,” I yelled possessively and ran toward him, digging my nails into his arms, eliciting a loud roar from the depths of his throat. I hadn’t felt a rage like that in years. I felt a burning sensation climbing its way up through my veins as he dropped the girl to the floor and turned around to face me.

  Brenem quickly adopted a fighter’s stance and donned a cocky smirk. I'd known him long enough to know he believed in guaranteed victory if he could press the early offensive. He ran at me and let out a ferocious roar before landing a heavy punch on my left eye.

  I scowled at him and wiped my mouth; his wings began to sprout larger, and his scales were lighting up and cascading all over his body. I could feel the intensity of the room light up as we all realized he was about to transform. His jaw adjusted for his sharp teeth and his tail began to grow. Then I realized that if he took on dragon form, he would literally tear the ship apart.

  He charged at me and dug his teeth well into my shoulder, and I groaned in pain, ripping him off of me with full force. I could see the blood dripping off his teeth and trailing onto the floor as I charged him backward; undeterred by his superior speed, strength, and stature.

  The red dragon was clearly showing off, striking for the tip my nose with every slash of his claws, and simply smirking at my attempts to block it. Finally, on the sixth try, I managed to lash out and grab his claw, twisting it back with all the force I had in human form. "Not so tough without those claws, are you?"

  Brenem's wings grew so large they began to push against the roof of the shuttle; the human women were now screaming and the Weredragons shouting for us to relax. I reached out and kicked at the red dragon, sending him careening into the wall before falling to the floor in a fury of coughs. I pinned him down and dug my claws deeper into his wrists; blood pooling under his arms. I could see his body taking human shifter form once more as he saw the fury in me. I opened my mouth wide and could feel the fire in my throat ready to flood him with flames.

  Suddenly I could feel myself growing as our fight escalated. I looked to Targeg and then to Ariella, suddenly worried both of us would get so lost in our battle that we would send the ship careening to its end.

  Targeg ripped me off of the red dragon with unusual force, his nails clawing into me as he pulled me to my feet in one swift movement. “Are we done here?!” he shouted, looking around at the array of colored scales and half transformed dragons. With an exasperated roll of his eyes, the dragons one by one began to disperse back into the ship.

  Brenem stood before me still, his wings receding back into a size better fit for a human.

  To my surprise, he looked to Ariella and grabbed her hand to help her up. She nodded her thanks, and he leaned in closer, putting his hand on her small shoulder as he asked, “Are you alright?”

  The sentiment was so clear and common, but I hadn’t even thought to ask.

  She looked shaken, but eagerly took his hand as though he meant safety to her. This bothered me, though I couldn’t figure out why.

  Chapter Five

  Ariella

  There was an uneasy silence that followed the fight I had just witnessed. Everyone seemed to disappear so quickly afterward, I felt like I didn’t even have time enough to decipher what had just happened.

  One moment the dragons were on the brink of war with one another, and the next I was on the floor, and the madness had stopped.

  “Are you alright?” the Weredragon asked me. He set his hands on my shoulders and searched my eyes kindly.

  “I’m fine,” I replied quietly. I could tell my body was in shock because as much as I tried to search my body for signs that I had just been bruised, I felt nothing. “I’m sorry I caused that,” I repeated to the dragon I’d heard called Targeg in an uncharacteristically small voice.

  “You didn’t cause anything,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

  There was a regal look to him that I found comforting. Something about him felt royal or inherently protective, and at that moment, I took complete solace in it.

  “Brenem’s wild. Give him a reason to fight, and he’ll run with it. Come to think of it, give him no reason to fight, and he’ll run with that, too.” He gave pause and looked at me once more before letting out a tired breath. “I feel bad for his mate, that’s for certain.”

  I looked over at Harper attending quickly to her new mate and looking at me as though I were public enemy number one. She and I had been friends during our training at the spaceport. Now I was on the other side of her new life. The way she looked at me told me from that moment on, everything was going to be different.

  My mate finally approached me and took me out of Targeg’s hands, though he didn’t seem like he quite knew what to do with me.

  “Are you alright?” he asked uncomfortably as he looked me over.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but my voice became lost as I looked at his shoulder. My eyes traced his wound and watched him shifting his shoulder back with difficulty. I reached out for his wound, but he flinched back instinctively. I frowned and looked up at him with annoyance as I said, “You need to get to the med station.”

  He looked to Targeg and then to me, breat
hing loudly through his nose as though relenting unwillingly to my request.

  “She should get checked out, too,” Targeg suggested.

  Caridan seemed to consider this, and without another word, he escorted me to the med bay of the ship. He rushed me down the narrow hallways and didn’t say another word.

  Targeg followed slowly behind, along with Ikar. The halls were stark white; a bright contrast to the dark space and endless stars visible from outside the vast windows. In fact, the white walls made it feel earlier in the day than it actually was.

  I was told that it would take over nine weeks to arrive at Udora. At some point, we were warned, we would be put into cryo so that our bodies wouldn’t be affected by the speed we would take on. Udora wasn’t exactly close in relation to Earth. All of the women had been put under intense physical training to be able to navigate space without too much interruption.

  This was fine by me, as I enjoyed the view from space and didn’t mind the cold too much either.

  We arrived at the Med Bay, and I wasn’t at all surprised to see we were the only ones there. The red dragon hadn’t exactly seemed humble enough to let someone else, let alone a human doctor, assist with his wounds.

  Caridan approached the bed and blood trickled down in spots on the white paper sheets beneath him. The doctor’s name was Patricia Knowles. She was in her late 50’s. It was a formality to have her on the assembly line for the choosing, really, as no one suspected that she would become a mate. She was quickly taken to work in the Med-Bay as soon as we boarded the ship.

  Patricia immediately turned her attention to Caridan, inspecting his wounds closely and sounding audibly concerned with her sighs and ‘Oh Dear’s’ as she took a prod to his skin.

  A nurse brought me to the station close to where he was and searched my body with a portable scanner to ensure I had no broken bones or a concussion. As it turned out, despite the unearthly headache I was experiencing, I was fine.

  Patricia looked back at the nurse who was with me to ensure my scan came out all clear. Once she was given a thumbs up, Patricia then devoted her undivided attention back to Caridan.